These "Song by Song" threads really rely on people just talking about the current song (or maybe one song before it) and not going back months and months before and playing catch-up or bringing in tangents to stay coherent.
Sure, guys, but you can hardly blame a new member of two weeks' duration, who joined the forum well after the thread was started, from weighing in on number 1 songs prior to his arrival. I would do the same.
I wouldn't do the same, and I'm not even an especially courteous person. Not trying to cast aspersions on anyone, but it actually is possible for a person to read things that interest them without feeling compelled to comment on them. That doesn't even get into the issue of posting uninterrupted pages upon pages of tangential semi-related information months after the fact. Just saying it's bad form. Makes it very hard to follow or maintain interest. OP set the topic and parameters way back at post 1:
I suppose it's possible to get lost (I haven't had any trouble following the discussion), but the problem is, if you reduce the focus of the thread too much, you end up with a bunch of responses like 'Oh, I never liked that one', or 'Oh, that's not as good as X by the same artist' or 'that's a classic'. Over and over again. What makes this thread fun is the tangents that the songs lead us onto. The weird trivia about the song or the artist. The arguments about whether the song deserved to be #1 (and what songs it beat out to get there). The context about the times it was produced in. The way those who lived through the times see the song vs. those who came to them through oldies stations. And for the more obscure artists, the chance to learn about some of their other work that those who like the #1 song might also like. I have become a Nino Tempo and April Stevens fan thanks to this thread. If we had been restricted just to talking about Deep Purple, that might not have happened. And yes, many of the people reading here have not been following the thread for a year and change but find some of the previous songs compelling to talk about. Perhaps if we (I include myself) who bring up the older stuff are careful to frame these as resumptions of older conversations, it won't seem so confusing? Personally, I'd hate to lose out on the chance to talk about ALL the songs in the thread, not just the very latest one.
Yes, I know - I owned the 45 when I was a kid. I abbreviated the title because I didn't think it was necessary to type out the whole thing. I'm fully aware of the song's complete title...
The movie is called "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". It was a major hit. I meant "Lawrence" - not saying for a fact it's the greatest movie ever made, but I'm not saying it isn't either: Lawrence of Arabia [Blu-Ray] (1962) "Manchurian Candidate" is also excellent, and "Mad World" offers pretty good comedy. Never saw "Miracle Worker" and think "Mockingbird" is overrated...
Agree - I might've been guilty of a little "catch up" too, but when people are quoting posts for weeks/months ago, this thread becomes more of a mess...
It does get messy - especially when referring back to songs that are YEARS before whatever song is being discussed.
Holy crap, "Yesterday" and "Get Off Of My Cloud", back to back at the top of the charts. They didn't call it The British Invasion for nothin'...
I was not quite a teen yet in '65 and was a little put off by the scruffy Stones. It didn't help that my older brothers abandoned the Beatles for , in their minds, the cooler Stones and derided my beloved band every chance they got. That's not to say there weren't some songs I did enjoy such as Satisfaction and The Last Time but I was still about a year away from fully appreciating the more adult rock of the Stones. This particular tune probably lands somewhere in the middle of the pack for me. Good but not great.
We are entering the start of me hearing a lot of top 40 radio on a fairly regular basis in addition to all the soul music we played in the home. But, I don't have any memory of hearing this song in 1965 beyond the hook. It wouldn't be until about 1989 that I would hear the song.
"Get Off My Cloud" might well be my favorite #1 song of 1965. Definitely in my Stones top ten as well. I vaguely recall the first time I heard it (on an oldies station in 1987), and thinking, oh, this is why they consider the Stones a big deal!
I agree 100%. One of my favorites from about 1959 onward; one in particular that I missed on its first airing was "Too Many Rivers."
It didn't take me long to get on board with the Stones; ultimately, I might actually prefer them to the Beatles during the early period.
Quite true. There's way too much music snobism on these boards. The world didn't evolve around The Beatles or Stones. Brian Wilson's Pet Sounds has been ranked as either THE greatest LP of all time, or No. 2-3. Don't try to tell me most of the music doesn't leave the 60s. Gary Lewis & The Playboys were GIANT hitmakers. They scored SEVEN Top 10 hits and NINE Top 20 hits in the span of 2 years.
That's not true. Sirius-XM's 60s channel plays many lesser-charting hits. While they do play the biggies, they don't ignore the smaller, or lesser-known hits. There are MANY songs they play that I'm not familiar with or only saw the title in a Billboard chart hits book. The other day I heard SHE KNOWS ME TOO WELL -- a 1965 Brian Wilson classic -- that was the B-side to When I Grow Up (To Be a Man) and only charted at No. 101. On the 50s channel, I've heard BILLY (a teeny-bobby girl song) and the Ann Margaret single (which bombed when released), plus many other gems you'd never hear on commercial oldies radio. On the 70s channel, they do play some of the less familiar cuts. It's not only about the boring, big hits like commercial oldies radio was mostly.
